Fullmetal Alchemist- Chapter 2
by Fullmetal Rider
Summary: The second story of Fullmetal Alchemist.


Fullmetal Alchemist- Chapter Two

"Colonel Roy Mustang, are you mocking me?" I slammed my hands on the table and glared at him. The cherry wood was starting to crack beneath my grasp, and when the Colonel saw that, he decided to cut the meeting short.

"Two choices: either stay in the demolished building, or live with the Elric's temporarily." Mustang smirked at me, and just when I was about to burn the Colonel to a crisp, Edward Elric kicked open the door, looking even more pissed than I was.

"Why do we have to share a room with a _girl_?" He waved a hand in my direction.

"I had no choice, Fullmetal." Mustang stood and pulled on his coat. Then he turned and shot another smirk at us.

"No need to put on that façade, I think this worked out for your benefit, Shorty."

Ed's face began to flush red, and he spat out one last accusation.

"It's against the rules to have a roommate of the opposite gender!"

The Colonel turned and looked past Ed, and directly at me.

"Well, if you despise her so much, you won't mind if she stays in my room, would you?" He walked out of the room, leaving me and Ed in stunned silence.

"Damned Colonel…" Ed breathed as he kicked over Mustang's chair and began to walk out as well.

"You coming?" He shot an annoyed glance at me, then looked away, seemingly waiting for me.

As I followed Ed to the dorms, I caught him looking over his shoulder at me, then back.

"What?"

"You wouldn't really want to stay with that skirt-chaser Colonel, right?" He whipped his head around, his short golden braid almost smacking me in the face.

I was amused by his reaction, and thought to tease Ed a bit.

"Well, he is quite the handsome man," I almost doubled over in disgust at what I was saying. But now Ed was completely turned around, looking straight at me. I was trying so hard not to laugh, and decided to hide it by copying Mustang's famous smirk.

"And he _is_ the Colonel…" I was now turning my head around in a desperate effort to hide my face, which was turning red as a result of how oblivious Ed was. I mean, it was so obvious that I hated the Colonel! My long raven-black hair was doing a great job in covering my face, contrasting my ivory-white skin. I was so glad that I didn't cut it, otherwise I would be caught already.

But alas, Ed sauntered over to me while I wasn't looking, and brushed my hair over so he could talk to me, face-to-face. And in doing so, I finally couldn't hold it anymore and started to laugh so hard, tears were streaming out of my eyes. Ed was dumbstruck, completely frozen, and probably still trying to register what had happened. When I was completely drained of oxygen and couldn't laugh anymore, I stood and made it easier for him to understand.

"I was joking! Of course I wouldn't want to share a room with the Colonel! Not even if my life depended on it!" I ran ahead of him to escape his humiliated face and his threats to show me what his automail was made of. I couldn't believe he fell for it!

As I was running, I saw Al waiting up ahead at the train stop.

"Al! Hide me!" I jumped in the bundle of armor and looked through the helmet's crevices. Ed had finally caught up, and was asking frantically where I had went.

"Al, have you seen Cheol? She ran all the way up here and I think I lost her."

I heard Al laugh nervously. He was bad at lying.

"Oh brother, there you are!" Al stood, and I crashed into the chest part of the armor. It was cramped in there. Ed must have heard the commotion I made, because he leaned in close to his brother, more like the armor, and looked through the helmet. I was starting to sweat, and when Ed shoved the helmet and leaned in more, I hit a handle in the armor, the butt plate crashed open, and I came in contact with Ed's chest.

_I'm dead, _I thought. And staring at Ed's mad-as-hell state, I thought right. But when I braced myself for Shorty's automail, I saw, through the spaces in between my crossed arms, Ed was just standing there, and staring at me. When I had come to think that he was temporarily diverted from me, I used my teleportation alchemy to teleport next to Ed. He seemed frozen in place, and to snap him out of it, I leaned in close to his ear and whispered, _"Shrimp."_

I teleported back, and watched his amusing reaction.

"WHO DARED TO CALL ME A SHRIMP SO SMALL THAT YOU NEED TO USE A MICROSCOPE TO SEE ME?!"

"I did." I replied coolly.

Ed spun around, and looked at me with daggers shooting from his eyes. A convenient wind kicked up, and our jackets billowed behind us. I then realized that his red jacket was spattered with blood in most places, and the alchemist symbol on the back was starting to fade. I frowned at this. Compared to my white jacket, which I always kept clean and crisp-looking (considering that it was Mother's), Ed's jacket still had my blood on it from a recent fight with the Colonel. I smirked at the memory.

"_Colonel Roy Mustang commands you to meet him in his office." Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye shook her head at me. I was excused from the State Alchemists' uniform code, but the Lieutenant and I knew the real reason as to why the Colonel (he was in charge of uniforms) let this slide. I was wearing Mother's Fuhrer jacket, an alchemist symbol painted on the back. That symbol allowed me to use any form of alchemy. The current Fuhrer had stated that when Mustang had the jacket in his hands, the Fuhrer title would be added to his name by right. It was meant to be a joke, but the Colonel wanted to become Fuhrer badly. So whenever the heaping stack of procrastinated paperwork on his office desk sank a bit, Mustang would call me up for a duel. Since he was a cheater, he made it so that I was not allowed to use the symbol while on State Alchemist duty. And that was 24/7. But I had the right to call the date and time of the match, so I took the liberty of scheduling it on rainy days. Fire vs. water. He can't execute a move when the rain is beating the flames down, right? Call me a coward, but I thought it served the Colonel right. The only thing that was able to reach me was the smoke that came from the burns on the cobblestones. Note: The Flame Alchemist is vulnerable in rain and water. I wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't swim either._

_But I was starting to get bored, so I made a daring move that day. I changed the date from cloudy and expectant of precipitation to sunny and dry. And I made sure that all moisture had dried from the dueling-grounds. This shocked the Colonel, but when I taunted him with the jacket, he swallowed all of his fears of what trickery I could be planning this time, and plastered on his famous smirk._

_When we walked onto the courtyard, the place where all matches in the State Alchemists' school are held, the other State Alchemists rushed to watch, because they had noticed that Mustang had the upper hand in this match. It was over 100__o__ that day, and most of the people watching had abandoned their jackets. Roy Mustang had gone shirtless, showing off for the State Alchemist women. But I caught Riza's eye and we both shrugged. What should we have expected? _

_When Maes Hughes had finished his annoying speech of how his wife was pregnant with their daughter, he backed away from the grounds and into the crowd._

"_ON YOUR MARKS," _

_The Colonel extended his left gloved hand, the fire alchemy symbol flashing at me._

"_READY,"_

_I shrugged off my jacket and kicked it on the ground. The crowd shuffled back, and Colonel Mustang looked shocked, that I would leave the Fuhrer jacket unguarded. _

"_FIGHT!" _

_Catching him off guard, I sent a blast of static electricity in the Colonel's direction. He took it as if I was aiming for his face, but I wasn't. He dodged and then snapped, an explosion of flames that landed a couple feet to the right of me. But while the oblivious Roy Mustang executed the attack, I directed the dodged static to his gloved hands. _

_How ironic. The Flame Alchemist can shoot fire from his gloves, but the fabric was flammable. That is, if the timing was right. When the Colonel snaps, the maximized friction can cause a spark, flame, or fire. But since the only thing allowing him to do that was the alchemy symbol on his gloves, I calculated that there was a chance to attack. The fabric of his gloves can wear out temporarily, and a part of the symbol regenerates it. That's why after each attack, the Colonel has to freeze for a bit, and masks this by pretending to locate his target. If the fabric doesn't regenerate, he can't keep attacking. And the duration of regeneration was just a couple seconds. So, the split second the Colonel snapped, I forced the static to a mere few feet away from him (I mean, I didn't want to fry him) and the rest was Physics. The friction-burned fabric attracted the static, and it basically chipped off the flame alchemy symbol. The look on Mustang's face was entertaining. First, the confident smirk. Then, when he snapped, confusion was written all over his face because no flames, not even a little spark, came out. And after he finally registered the fact that he was just digging his own grave, he executed a dramatic soap-opera spin, kneeled to the ground, quickly drew a transportation circle, and disappeared. _

"_Wow. He has some guts." I looked over at Lieutenant Hawkeye, who was massaging her temples in embarrassment. I didn't blame her. That damned Colonel was a cheater, in many more ways than one. _

_When I had returned to the women's dorms with Riza, I took all my clothes to the laundry. But when I took off the bandages I was wearing around my torso (as was the custom for Japanese women who fought), I found that the fire had burned me in some places, and that I had bled a lot during the fight. The bandages were practically drowned in blood, some of it staining my shirt. I stood on a chair to reach the recycling bin that hung from the ceiling. Why the architects who built this place would put that there, I have no idea._

"_Are you ok? Even if you say you are, I know you well enough to tell that you won't be fine without getting treatment from the hospital." Ed was standing in the laundry room's doorway, his brother, Al, hovering close behind him._

"_We watched the fight. You might not have noticed it, but one of the Colonel's attacks hit your shoulder. It's bleeding…" Al was backing away, dragging Ed with him. Most likely because I was starting to change clothes, and when I looked at the wound Al talked about, it was still bleeding, the blood running down my back and splashing onto the floor. I suddenly felt faint, and then the last thing I saw was the ceiling lamp, and the brothers frantically rushing forward to break my fall. At least I didn't get a concussion. _

When I had finished my flashback, I saw that Ed was still standing in the same place. The wind started to kick up again, and it sent dirt along with it, scuffing the bottom of his jacket. I was starting to get annoyed by this, and charged forward. Ed took this as if I were trying to start a fight, but I ran right past him, pinching the edge of his collar and ripping the whole jacket off. Then I ran with it, all the way to the Elrics' house.

"Hey Shorty," I had a question regarding the memory that had just replayed itself in my conscience.

"DON'T CALL ME A SHOR-"

"Remember that time after I fought with the Colonel, I fainted because I had a lack of blood?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"I was wondering. I couldn't have walked to the nurse's office by myself, right?"

"So?"

"So, who carried me there?" I was watching Ed's face for any signs of embarrassment. We walked on in silence, me still staring at his face, Ed looking straight ahead, and Al following behind us. Nothing showed up. So, when the house was in sight, I ran up ahead, taunting the brothers.

"Slowpokes! Whoever gets there last has to share a room with me!" I laughed and sped off. Ed blushed madly and chased after, with Al tailing us.

We debated how we were going to make sleeping arrangements, and since Al came in last, with that heavy armor weighing him down, I had to sleep in Al's room.

"Cheol?" Al was stationed in front of the door, just in case someone broke in the house.

"What's up?" Al had offered me his bed because since he had a non-existent body, he didn't need to eat or sleep like humans do. I was lying on my side, staring at Al's armor.

"Between me and Ed, who do you like better?"

"I like Alphonse better." That one statement sent Al toppling over like a stack of cards.

"R-really? You're not tricking me like you always do with Edward, right?"

"I only pick on him because his reactions are so entertaining."

"Then am I boring compared to him?"

"No. You're cool, Al, compared to that Shorty." At that split second, we heard a crash behind the door, accompanied by an annoyed-looking Ed kicking it open.

"SHORTY?! AM I THAT SHORT TO YOU?!" Ed grabbed me by the collar and dragged me out of the room. Al was chasing after us, but when we got to Ed's room, he slammed the door shut on Al. Me? I was muffling my laughter with my shirt. This boy has no shame! Eavesdropping on me and Al, barging in when I called him a Shorty, and wearing boxers!

"What the hell was that for?!" Ed looked at me face-to-face, his golden eyes glaring at my coal-colored ones.

"I should be the one asking that," I stood, and mock-gaped at how I was taller than him.

"-Shorty." I finished the sentence and crossed my arms, as if daring Ed to fight me.

The silence stretched thinner and thinner between us, and finally he couldn't take it anymore, and hurled himself onto his bed and buried his head in a pillow.

I stood, and padded over to the door, but not before I heard Ed mumble something that made my blood run cold.

"I'll become cooler than Al. And I'll make myself taller, too."

I didn't turn around, and I couldn't think either. What was that? But then I managed to contort my face into its usual expression: cold, a dominant smirk tugging on one corner of my mouth, and my eyes were staring straight ahead.

"Good night, Ed." I shut the door, and tripped over something that felt like metal. When I looked up, I saw Al, his helmet tilted to one side, hands folded on his lap. I moved his hands and sat on his lap, knocking my back on his chest plate. The armor moved a bit at that, and then a hand tousled my hair. I couldn't remember the last time I had this kind of comforting feeling, ever since my parents died. Well, just Mother, in the battle of Ishbal. Father, the bastard, left us before the war had even started, which must have added to Mother's burden.

"I know what you're thinking."

I was shocked that Al was still awake, and looked up to meet the talking helmet.

"What am I thinking, then?"

"You're thinking about your parents. Ed and I lost our parents too. So we know how you feel."

I whipped my head back, a couple tears running down my face and into my hands that were lying on my knees. Al cradled my head, and I sobbed even more, half embarrassed to cry in front of him, and half ecstatic to know that there was someone in the world who shared my sorrow, and went through even more.

We heard a door creak open, and Ed came running to us, concerned. But when he saw me, crying in front of them for the first time, he knelt and wiped the tears away. But then we heard another door creak open.

"Was that the wind, Brother?"

"No. All the windows are shut."

Heavy footsteps emerged from the direction of the front door, and came closer, and closer… Whatever was there most likely was wearing boots.

"Ed…" An outline of a person became barely visible, then we saw something metallic in the person's hand. A wrench.

"AL! CHEOL! RUN, IT'S THE GHOST THAT'S BEEN HAUNTING THIS DORM FOR CENTURIES! MAES HUGHES WASN'T LYING!" Ed was now baring his automail arm, but it was shaking. It didn't take a rocket scientist to guess that he was afraid of supernatural beings. But I was sure that I had seen this person before. The figure was so familiar. Maybe I saw it from one of the pictures that were framed and hanging on the wall in Ed's room?

Suddenly, the person grabbed the wrench and swung it in Ed's general direction, missing his head by an inch.

"I'M NOT A GHOST, GODDAMMIT!" The person was obviously a girl, and when she stepped in so that we could see her face, I gasped.

It was Winry.

I had never met her before, but just by looking at the way the brothers stared at her in the pictures, they must have been close during childhood. And when she called them in the beginning of this month, February, she had said that she would be coming over to celebrate Ed's birthday, which was on the _third_ of February. She most likely boarded the train to Central while talking, because the line had crashed right after she had spouted the news.

And now, standing in front of me, in the flesh, was Winry Rockbell herself. She flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder, and looked at us expectantly, where as we were frozen in place.

"Winry?" I wanted to see if I had gotten the right person. Her blue eyes scanned me from top to bottom, and then she launched herself at me.

"Cheol!" I saw a blur of blonde hair whipping through the air as she landed right in front of me, and then she saluted.

"You're Cheol Sturluson*, the next Fuhrer in line! I'm Winry Rockbell, the brothers' personal mechanic!" Winry bowed and shot right back up, grabbing my hand and spinning me around so that she could see the alchemy symbol painted on my back.

"So it is true…" She traced the transmutation circle and her eyes got watery.

She looked up at me, since I was a bit taller than her, and started to cry. The only thing that I could do was rub her back in comfort, while she nestled her face in my jacket. After a couple minutes of sobbing, we heard snoring.

"She's asleep." Ed stood up and grabbed Winry's arm and dragged her to the couch. Al covered her with a blanket, and then the two waltzed back to their rooms, with me following Al.

"Good night, Cheol."

"Night, Al."

_[Dream] I was waking up to the sound of church bells, and seeing that the brothers and Winry had gone somewhere, I decided to go to church for a change._

_I was at the church's iron gates, the bells still ringing. As I reached for the handle, the doors opened for me and what I saw beyond them was the most shocking thing: the Elric brothers were getting married. To Winry Rockbell. (Bet you hate me now, fangirls!)_

_Sorry Cheol, but I'll be taking both of them!" She waved her bouquet at me and ran to a reserved carriage with white horses, and dragged Ed and Al with her._

I woke up (in the real world) sweating, and with Al hovering above me.

"Cheol, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm just… getting used to the summer heat. In Japan, there was barely a summer. It even snowed there!"

Al put his hand on my forehead.

"You have a fever!" He bolted out of the room, leaving me to flop over like a fish. I checked my temperature, calculating how many degrees over average the fever would be. I rarely got sick, so if Ed found out, I wouldn't hear the end of it. Especially if I told him that it could have been caused by the dream.

At that thought, he knocked on the door.

"Cheol, Al, breakfast is ready." Ed lumbered into the room, rubbing his eyes.

I sped out the door and bumped into Al, who was holding a tray with a water bowl and a towel.

"Cheol, you shouldn't be standing when you have a fever!"

We heard muffled laughter, and then Al froze.

"Aw, is Cheol sick? Here, you should stay here while the boys and I go shopping." Winry was stirring some kind of soup.

More muffled laughter. It sounded like it was coming from behind the countertop, close to where Winry was cooking something that didn't look edible. I crept over there, and climbed on top of the counter. When I looked down, I saw Ed laughing hysterically, with a towel covering his face.

"So, Shorty, are you getting any taller?"

He looked up, and was met with a pan crashing into his face.

"B-brother!" Al stammered as he tried to shake Ed back into reality. I guess I put too much force on the pan.

"Is it always like this when you're here?" Winry whispered to me.

"I just got here yesterday." I whispered back. Ed had recovered, and came to the table, both hands up in defeat.

"Maybe it won't be so bad having Cheol around the house," he stated, and then smirked.

"We can't even consider her as a girl! Right, Al?" Ed finished his sentence, looking over at Al, who was blushing.

"Brother! I don't think it's polite to say something like that…" Al was glancing away from his brother's annoyed stare, and ran from the room. I grasped a pot that was place on the countertop, and stepped towards Ed, tapping the pot lightly on the table. He scooted backwards a bit, then bolted out the door, leaving me alone with Winry.

"I'm so jealous. You get to spend more time with them than I do." She poured some steaming liquid into a bowl, then set it on the table in front of me.

"You sound like an old woman." I tilted the rim of the bowl into my mouth. The soup was surprisingly delicious.

"When I'm with those two, it's easy to feel that way, but…" Winry glanced over at the window, where Ed and Al were visibly arguing over something. "It's something you can never get tired of." She finished, looking over at me with a warm smile.

Suddenly, I saw my mother, sitting in front of me, with that same smile. I shook my head and looked back up, and there was Winry.

"Are you ok, Cheol?"

"Yes, I'm alright." I rubbed my forehead, watching the brothers run back into the house.

_It's something you can never get tired of._

"Hey Al, remember how Cheol was asking us who carried her to the infirmary?" Ed was lying on his back in the grassy field, his brother in an identical position.

"Yes brother?"

"Don't tell her that it was me."

* * *

*Cheol- "Cheol" is the Korean word for iron. Although the story says that she is half Japanese, I wanted to use the Korean name in commemoration of a childhood friend.

*Sturluson- "Sturluson" is the name of a character in the anime "Durarara!" All credits go to the anime.


End file.
